By JOSEPH FITZGERALD

NORTH SMITHFIELD — An engineering study to help the town identify ways to alleviate flooding in the Cherry Brook neighborhood has been put on hold until town officials decide how to finance the study.

The town went out to bid for the study back in February and Providence-based McGuire Group, Inc. emerged as the firm best qualified to take on the study. There’s only one problem – the town doesn’t have the money to pay for the job, estimated at roughly $44,000.
“The Planning Department doesn’t have the money,” Town planner Michael Phillips told the Town Council at a meeting Monday.
Residents living in the Cherry Brook neighborhood, including Lapre and Woodland Roads, have been complaining to town officials for years about basement and property flooding during heavy rains. In February, the council sent requests for proposals to have an engineering firm study the Cherry Brook watershed and determine whether or not something can be done to alleviate the flooding.
When the council approved sending out the requests for proposals there was some preliminary discussion that funds to pay for the study would come from the planning fund or the tow’s surplus cash. But that was six months ago at the beginning of what would turn out to be one of the most difficult budget years in recent town history. Not only is the planning department budget depleted, but town officials are reluctant to take any more money from surplus because it has already dipped into those funds to help out the schools.
Several weeks ago, the council and school department worked out a plan to cover another $496,000 in budget funds requested for schools by using $224,000 in surplus school funding, the town’s $147,000 Northern Rhode Island Collaborative settlement award, and $122,000 in town surplus funding, which was added to the school budget to get the middle school open and operating.
At the council’s meeting Monday night, Town Administrator Robert B. Lowe recommended against taking any more from surplus.
According to town officials, funding the study from grants doesn’t seem to be an option, either. On the state level there are too many similar projects statewide and not enough funding to go around. As for federal grants, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), for example, would not likely fund the study unless the town can show up front that there is a remedial solution. But that can’t be determined until the study is completed. Even then there’s no guarantee that the problems can be fixed, town officials say.
 Members of the council were left scratching their heads for answers Monday night and directed Phillips to contact McGuire to see how long the firm will guarantee the bid price until the town can find a funding source.
Mcguire was one of four firms submitting bids. The others were Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc. (VHB), Pare Corporation and Casali & D’Amico Engineering Corp.
The council will address the issue at its meeting on Aug. 18. If the council is unable to come up with a funding solution, the study may have to be re-bid when the money does become available.